SUDDENLY, it might as well be 2008 as the next presidential campaign instantly kicks off now that the midterm elections are done.
“The shadow 2008 campaign ended yesterday – and the public campaign begins today,” said Republican pollster John McLaughlin.
It starts with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) as the Democratic front-runner (but questions remain about whether she can win) and Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) topping the GOP side as everyone tries to learn lessons from 2006.
The shape of the 2008 field was altered by the midterms – 2004 loser John Kerry’s boneheaded “joke” about U.S. troops effectively knocked him out for next time, if he was ever in.
Likewise, on the Republican side, the bumbling re-election bid of Sen. George Allen (Va.) killed the talk that he’d be the conservative fave in 2008.
Instead, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney sneaked into the conservative spot Allen was eyeing – although doubts remain about his electability as a Mormon.
Among Dems, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) emerged as a media darling by floating his ’08 dreams and stumping around the country.
Democrats also face tough decisions about how to deal with left-wing activists.
The blogger activists who haunt Web sites like Daily Kos showed their clout by helping anti-war contender Ned Lamont beat Sen. Joe Lieberman in Connecticut’s Democratic primary. But every poll predicted Lieberman would clobber Lamont in the general election last night.
That has fueled Democratic jitters that the Kos crew will use its disproportionate clout in 2008 to yank the party way too far to the left.